Starting Off 2015 With An Improved Experience For Phoronix Readers

[kaidenshi]

You don't have to click on the ad but anywhere on the screen. Those ads are only shown once per 24 hours to readers in select geographies when having a tech sponsor, as they pay significantly higher more than normal ads (around ~20x more) so they do a lot more to help out the site and are limited to once per day and usually on first page load to try to minimize any annoyance.

Thank you for responding. I realize that I can click anywhere on the page to dismiss the ad; that's not the point. The point is, the ad is highly intrusive and forces me to dismiss it before I can continue reading. That is a tactic that is common on clickbait gossip sites and scummy web portals, and is not a good fit for the content and audience here, at least in my opinion. I do respect your need for advertising to generate income, and I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't advertise on your site. But this particular type of "attack ad" is anti-user and flies in the face of good website design and etiquette. It demeans what is otherwise a quality site. In short, it leave a bad first impression, and given your target audience, it's a bit insulting.

[Luke_Wolf]

Could someone please tell me just who exactly is celebrating Christmas today?

[johnc]

Could someone please tell me just who exactly is celebrating Christmas today?

Orthodox Christians

[xeekei]

My biggest gripe with the ads (I do not seem to get the overlay ad mentioned above) is that the site becomes extremely slow with them. Even my 100 Mbit/s fibre connection chokes a few seconds. Maybe I should just become a premium member instead.

[Rakot]

My biggest gripe with the ads (I do not seem to get the overlay ad mentioned above) is that the site becomes extremely slow with them. Even my 100 Mbit/s fibre connection chokes a few seconds. Maybe I should just become a premium member instead.

I completely agree. With all these ads the website is sluggish.

[nils_]

Well now that the annoying log-in issue is fixed I will give premium another shot.

[mwpow3ll]

You don't have to click on the ad but anywhere on the screen. Those ads are only shown once per 24 hours to readers in select geographies when having a tech sponsor, as they pay significantly higher more than normal ads (around ~20x more) so they do a lot more to help out the site and are limited to once per day and usually on first page load to try to minimize any annoyance.

This is untrue; I just tested and saw it three times in less than 3 minutes. First, main phoronix site on load. Second, page load of "Arctic Z2 Pro Dual Monitor Stand". Third, page load of "Part tTwo of KDAB's QT3D 2.0 overview".

On a side note, I don't usually care what tech an Ad is displayed with, because I learned my lesson a long time ago. I was at the office and doing research online. I loaded a website and turned my back to reset a board and my boss walked in. Immediately the boss tells me I should be more careful; the website was displaying an ad that was of a woman topless covering herself using her arms wearing lingerie type underwear advocating a singles dating site. The ad wasn't nude, but it was highly suggestive and in work environments where sexual harrasment can be levied for even the slightest thing, it's just not acceptable to allow any ads. Furthermore, in todays society where computers are becoming required for children to complete some homework, I will never let my child browse online without AdBlock enabled; thus, I use AdBlock indiscriminately... plain and simple.

[Szzz]

Could someone please tell me just who exactly is celebrating Christmas today?

Those who still use Julian calendar. It is December 25th in Julian calendar today.

[kaprikawn]

Auto login on the main .com page is a much welcomed addition, thanks Michael. Clicking through to the forums then back to the main page was an annoyance and I'm glad you're continuing to improve the site. Keep up the great work.

[MartinN]

Could someone please tell me just who exactly is celebrating Christmas today?

Me. Orthodox Christianity goes by the Julian (rather than Gregorian) calendar, so Christmas is today and New Year on the 13th. Merry Christmas, Christ is born!